ABSTRACT
This chapter examines India’s foreign policy under Modi from the period 2014–2019, which was witness to a growing level of threat in the international environment coupled with an ideologically motivated political leadership, both potentially challenging the persistence of central heuristics of India’s strategic culture. The first section assesses the ends–means–ways of Modi’s foreign policy fundamentals which are shown to be broadly in line with Kautilyan central tenets.
The second section examines India–US bilateral relations and concludes that convergence of interest, imminence of external threat, and relative power vis-à-vis China have prodded India towards deeper engagement, without jeopardizing strategic autonomy. The third section on China argues that India has resorted to an issue-based approach ranging from accommodating China’s rise and engaging with it economically at one end and standing its ground resolutely on matters of territoriality and sovereignty on the other. India’s balance between assertion and accommodation with Pakistan is dealt with in the last section. Pronounced confidence in diplomacy and deepened efforts to build loose coalitions are modulated manifestations of substantially enhanced domestic capability and increased external threat levels in the Modi years.
